Morning journal and courier., 1887-04-15
SILAS LAPHAMS.
People Who Might Sit for MT. How
 els, Portraits.

People Who Might Sit for MT How
 elIs' Portraits.
 Boston Correspondence Minneapolis Tribune
 Every night there are hundreds of men
 who go home to their rich and elegant houses
 on the Back Bay, who might have served as
 models for the clever and faithful pen of
 Novelist Howells in his ''Rse of Silas Lap
 ham," They get up early in the morning,
 just as they did when they were working at trades or behind counters, they bend their
 brains all day without much relaxation to
 the successful piling up of dollars upon their
 large accumulations, and at every evening
 they go home and try to persuade themselves
 and their neighbors that they are of some
 social consequence. There is pathos in the
 struggles of these men to make an appear
 ance at what they are not and never can be. 1 suppose there are more women than men who are striving and pushing to get into so- ciety, but their ambitions are more common ly understood. We can smile at the ambi- tions and pretensions of Mrs. Shoddy, be- lieving that her purpose is as shallow as her self but when the old man Shoddy shows that he is determined to be somebody and puts big will at work, there is a touch of sadness in it. We know that intellectual structure is hopelessly but everlastingly of the sow's-ear variety, and that it can never be ma le into the silk purse, though millions are spent in the effort. The character of Si- l las Lapham was not bit overdrawn. We meet men every day who personify it.
 I will give you a glimpse of one of them He was gallant soldier in the war and came l out of it with the rank of colonel by brevet. Before the war he sharp and success | ful salesman. Soon after the war he en- gagged in business for himself, and partly by good luck and partly by shrewd business tact he got hold of certain patents covering l articles that were bound to come into very common use. To these patents he added others and soon began manufacturing and dealing in the articles. He developed the l business, which few years ago became a trade both in this country and abroad.
 The thousands rolled in upon him faster almost than he could count them. He branched out in other directions, invested largely in railroad and mining companies, and though he lost great deal of money in these ways, his monopoly continued and the revenues poured in as if they would never end. Like many other men to day, he ap- pears in many enterprises, most of which are mere channels for working off the great gains that his legitimate business supplies. He has lately established his family in a fine new house on Commonwealth avenue, not far from the Hotel Vendome and touch | ing elbows as it were with aristocratic neigh bors on all sides. The house has been built and furnished artistical1y, and therefore of course without any particular reference to his own taste. The architect knew what to do and the fnisners and decorators were told l to do what they thought proper. Here the mas ter of the house entertains with what he con- siders large hospitality and regales his guests with accounts of his own extravaganza in house furnishing, the prices of various pie lures, ornaments, etc.
 He crowns boorish manners with 8 certain grutf swagger that in his own es imation passes for perfect ease and royal hospitality, and which he appears to think well calcula- l ted to make his guests feel at home. He gave a card party the other evening at which | ladies and gentlemen went attired in even- | ing dress, to find their host comfortably robed in his dressing gown, in which he re-
 mained throughout the evening. The card playing was frequently disturbed by gruff | commands from the host to some lady or gentleman to go and look at such and such | an object in one of the rooms, for which he paid so much money-price named.
 When supper was announced the host bade the hostess go out and see about the prepa, 1 rations as he had already been out and | found "a devil of row" This row he explained to the company as no less catas- trophe than the entire melting of the ice cream Although the company included newly married couple who were the special guests, the host naturally lacked the knowl-
 edge that he ought to take the bride out to supper, and after several awkward minutes
 the party stra gled as best they could into the supper room, where the host had already prepared good and commanding position.
 This man is one of a class here in Boston. He cannot undeist stand why the best in the city should not open their doors to him and
 come to his card parties, but he is bent with
 terrible energy upon ''getting there" He will spend the balance ot his life in learning the thins that money cannot do